Instruct Us
About Us
Barristers in Chambers practise in criminal, regulatory, family, civil and coronial law. Our barristers advise and represent clients:
- In criminal proceedings. Our barristers act for the defence and prosecution in the full range of criminal cases before the Crown Courts and Magistrates’ Courts, and on appeal.
- In regulatory proceedings. Our barristers act for regulators and regulated persons before disciplinary tribunals and on appeal.
- In family proceedings. Our barristers act for clients in a wide range of family cases in the County Court, in the High Court and on appeal.
- In coronial proceedings. Our barristers act for participants appearing at Inquests and on appeal.
- In civil proceedings. Our barristers act in a wide range of civil cases in the County Court, in the High Court and on appeal.
Contact Us
When instructing a barrister, your first point of contact will be a member of our experienced clerking team. Our Senior Clerk, Lee Hughes-Gage, and his team possess an unrivalled knowledge of the specialist practices of each barrister in Chambers and are happy to assist you on all matters of suitability, availability and fees.
Our clerks enjoy good working relationships with court staff and strive to ensure that court and tribunal appointments are fixed and booked for convenient dates and times. Our clerks pride themselves on their ability to manage smoothly every commitment in the diaries of barristers in Chambers.
The following are invited to contact the clerking team for a quote for our barristers’ services by telephone, by email or by post at the contact details provided below:
- Solicitors or other practising lawyers. Our clients include UK and international law firms and in-house legal departments.
- Licensed Access clients, who may either hold a licence issued by the Bar Standards Board, or be a member of a professional body which has been recognised by the Bar Standards Board.
- Members of the public who wish to instruct a barrister under the Public Access scheme.
We will provide you with a quote as soon as possible. We always aim to set out quotes clearly, but if you receive your quote and there is something you do not understand, please contact us.
Fees
Our clerking team work with the barristers to provide fees estimates and budgets for each instruction. Whilst we charge competitive market rates commensurate with the service provided we are always willing to discuss the way our fees are structured in order to find a solution that works.
Barristers in Chambers most often charge hourly rates for privately funded work in the areas of practice set out above. In such cases our barristers work under the standard default terms provided by the Bar Council, known as The Standard Contractual Terms for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised Persons 2020.
The hourly rate for a particular case or a specific piece of work will normally be agreed in advance and takes into account the market rate, the individual barrister’s skill and experience and the particular circumstances of the case or work, including complexity, importance and urgency.
Fixed fees, conditional fee agreements and different contractual terms may also be considered in certain cases.
For more information, please contact the clerking team.
Timescales
Timescales for a case may vary depending on factors such as barristers’ availability, the type and complexity of the case, the other side’s approach and court waiting times.
Public Access
If you are a member of the public, follow this link for the Bar Standards Board’s Public Access Guidance for Lay Clients.
This will help you understand how the Public Access scheme works and explains how you can use it to instruct barristers directly.
The Bar Standards Board requires barristers to provide additional price information in relation to specific areas of Public Access work. Public Access barristers in Chambers practise in one of these specific areas:
- Summary only motoring offences
Additional price information in relation to these specific areas is provided below.
Public Access – Motoring Offences (Summary Only)
Our barristers can advise and represent you in court if you are charged with a ‘summary only’ motoring offence. This is a motoring offence which can only be heard in the Magistrates’ Court. For example, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance, careless driving, failing to stop or report and speeding.
Timescales
Timescales for our services may vary depending on factors such as a barristers’ availability, the complexity of your case and the need for additional documents. For this type of work written advice will usually be available within 1 to 2 weeks where possible. You may also need representation or advice at short notice. If so, please contact the clerking team and our barristers will aim to represent you at the hearing or advise you where possible.
Fees
For this type of work, our barristers most often charge hourly rates. Below we provide estimates based on ranges of hourly rates for barristers in Chambers. VAT is charged on fees where applicable.
Your fees may vary depending on your needs – for example, your fees may be towards the higher end of the range if you need a more experienced barrister or Queen’s Counsel and/or you have a complex case. If you have a particularly complex case, your fees may also be higher than the estimates below.
| Stage of case | Range of hourly rates (estimates) |
| Written advice on your case | £100-£800 + VAT, approximately 1-10 hours |
| Preparation of case, including conferences with you and assistance with drafting of court documents | £100-£800 + VAT, approximately 1-10 hours |
| Guilty pleas | £100-£800 + VAT, approximately 1-5 hours |
| First appearance (pre-trial court appearance) | £100-£800 + VAT, approximately 1-5 hours |
| First day of trial | £100-£800 + VAT, approximately 5-10 hours |
| Court appearances per day, after the first day of trial | £100-£800 + VAT, approximately 5-10 hours per day |
Contact Us
For the most accurate fee estimate, please contact the clerking team.
Regulatory and Complaints Information
Barristers in Chambers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board. You can search the Barristers’ Register on the Bar Standards Board’s website here:
https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/regulatory-requirements/the-barristers'-register/
This shows (1) whether a barrister has a current practising certificate, and (2) whether a barrister has any disciplinary findings, which are published on the Bar Standards Board’s website in accordance with their policy. Alternatively, you can contact the Bar Standards Board on 020 7611 1444 to ask about this (or e-mail contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk).
We aim to provide an excellent quality of service at all times. If you are dissatisfied with any area of our service, we would encourage you to let us know immediately.
In many cases, potential complaints can be resolved informally without resort to the formal complaints procedure. Please direct your complaint to our Chambers administrator, whose contact details are given below. In our experience, complaints can often be resolved satisfactorily in this way without recourse to the more formal procedure.
If the case cannot be resolved informally in a satisfactory way, Chambers has adopted a formal complaints procedure which ensures that complaints are dealt with appropriately. If anyone wishes to find out more about that procedure, they are invited to send a written request for a copy of that procedure to our Chambers administrator.
Our complaints procedure also provides information on:
- Any right you may have to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) – the independent body which can help you if you have complained to your lawyer and are not happy with their response;
- How to complain to the LeO; and
- Any time limits for making a complaint.
You can also search the decision data on the LeO’s website here:
https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/data-centre/ombudsman-decision-data/
This shows providers which received an ombudsman’s decision in the previous calendar year, and whether the LeO required the provider to give the consumer a remedy. Alternatively, you can contact the LeO on 0300 555 0333 to ask about this or e-mail enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Further Information and Contact Details
For further information, or for a hard copy of the information on this page, please contact our Chambers administrator, Nicki Crew, she may be contacted by telephone on 020 7353 5638, by email at nicki@5kbw.co.uk or by post addressed to The Chambers Administrator at the address below.
Chambers of Sarah Forshaw KC & Mark Heywood KC
5 King’s Bench Walk
Temple
London EC4Y 7DN
